I have a renewed appreciation for the phone lately. Not my DROID which seems to want to be everything but a phone, but I digress…

Last week I placed an order for two gift baskets through Wolferman’s. A few days later, I received a message from them. A simple voicemail from a real live sales rep thanking me for the business and letting me know both my gifts had shipped. Last week, I got a call from a real live person from IAEE, not a pre-recorded teleblast, reminding me to register for the Mid-Year Meeting. I appreciated the personal touch in this age of automation. And since I rarely get calls or voicemails anymore, they had a strong impact.  One of my favorite clients will email me with a prompt, “Do you have time to chat about a few things this morning?”  I’ll call and we can knock out our top to-do’s sometimes in a matter of minutes. It’s efficient and I get to catch up with the person, not just the workload. For one of our other clients, we are currently experimenting with a new marketing tactic: personal follow-up calls to those who opened a call-to-register email but have yet to register for the event.  We know they are interested since they took the time to open the email. We believe that a phone prompt might be the enticement they need to commit to the event. It also provides an opportunity to deliver a sincere thanks or even a special offer.

Just as print is making a comeback, maybe phone calls from real live people are, too. I’m not the only one who hopes so.

This weekend at my daughter’s soccer game, I sat down next to a commercial builder and a lawyer who were in the middle of a somber conversation about business. For the most part, things were looking up—new clients, new projects, an uptick in billable activities. However, we all agreed that basic civility has taken a big hit. I’ve been wondering ever since—why is it so hard to be nice anymore?

I believe stress and fear have a lot to do with it. A segment on this week’s Today Show supports this idea and also suggests that our growing disengagement from face-to-face communication is part of the problem. Everyone has learned to do more with less in this recession. The problem is that less staff, less budget and less resources also mean less profit, less time and less fun. The people who are lucky enough to have their jobs have to work twice as hard and the bottom line—and holding on to business—has become the driving factor in how we behave. We are distracted and harried. For most of us, though, the majority of our waking hours are spent at work and those work relationships can either make or break our days.

I am hopeful that a new trend will start. A sincere compliment, some genuine gratitude and a smile really do go a long way. We should all try to practice random acts of kindness toward one another. Surprise your colleague with their favorite Starbucks drink; offer some unsolicited positive feedback and stop there; pick up the phone and have a conversation instead of exchanging cryptic two-word emails; say thank you at the end of a long day. It is really not that hard to do.